On Thursday, November 4th, the Gen Art Foundation will host the Gen Art Resurrection Benefit at Good Units at the Hudson Hotel at 356 West 58th Street from 8-11pm.
Gen Art was the leading arts and entertainment organization dedicated to showcasing the best emerging talent in film, fashion, music and art in major cities in the U.S. The event’s Honorary Host Committee is composed solely of Gen Art alumni and includes Academy Award nominees Edward Norton, Jeremy Renner, Whitney Port and many others. All proceeds from the Benefit will go to emerging filmmakers and designers who lost money when Gen Art (the for-profit production arm of the enterprise) became insolvent in May. DJ Reach, a longtime Gen Art supporter, will spin.
When Gen Art became insolvent, there was a group of filmmakers and designers who suffered monetary losses. These included award winners from April’s 15th Anniversary Gen Art Film Festival as well as some designers involved in Gen Art’s Shop events that were cancelled. Co-Founder and CEO Ian Gerard stated: “In these trying economic times, every dollar counts to an emerging artist. To know that our business troubles had a negative effect on a group of young talent was unacceptable to us. As an organization founded on the premise of benefiting and supporting such emerging talent, we want to do what we can to make it right and this Benefit will hopefully achieve that.”
Gen Art is thrilled to see such continuing support of their mission coming directly from so many of their alumni. For this Benefit, Gen Art tapped a wide range of the talent who have come through its doors including many recent Honorees of its “7 Fresh Faces in Film” program which includes Host Committee members Kate Mara (to be seen in the upcoming Nov. 5th Danny Boyle release “127 Hours”), Jason Ritter (NBC’s “The Event”) and Paz de la Huerta (HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”) whose careers have taken off in such a short period of time since their being honored by Gen Art – all in 2008.
Due to the deep recession and faced with drastically decreased corporate sponsorship dollars, Gen Art closed in early May and entered chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company, which has been in talks with a variety of strategic acquisition purchasers over the past few months, believes that it will solidify such an acquisition later this Fall and that the brand will re-launch in some form later this year.
All proceeds from the evening will be collected by the Gen Art Foundation, a charity whose ongoing mission is to support and provide educational programming for emerging talent, which will distribute such proceeds to those talent directly monetarily affected by Gen Art’s closure. The Gen Art Foundation was created back in 1994, at the same time as the for-profit production arm of the company (Gen Art), and the two had worked in tandem up till Gen Art’s closure.
Tickets for the Gen Art Resurrection Benefit start at $75. For more info on the event or to purchase tickets, click here.
